I would have to assume that there are old-school hammer and anvil type blacksmiths out there who consider these Hebo machines “cheating”, but wow are they cool to watch, and certainly much faster. I wonder is the iron is heated before going in, or is manipulated cold?
Watch in awe as they “Twist, endforge, scroll, emboss, texture, hammer tube, make baskets, and press belly pickets, and much more. ”
via Gizmodo
They are using “Implosive Connectors” to make power line connections on the new towers along I-94 in Minnesota. A small explosive charge is evenly distributed around an aluminum sleeve and when it is detonated it uniformly compresses the sleeve down onto the cable inside.
How cool is that? And they don’t want you to watch? oh come on, it is like a frikkin James Bond movie along the interstate!
I never did see any helicopters on the day I drove by, but the company does have a video of the process, and other helicopter line work on their website :
Implosive connectors and helicopter line work
In 1910 airman Walter Wellman and five companions attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the airship America. He was also accompanied by his cat Kiddo. Unfortunately once they were underway Kiddo decided he was not so fond of flying and started causing trouble by meowing, crying and running around ‘like a squirrel in a cage.’ The airship America was the first aircraft to be carry radio equipment and the first engineer, Melvin Vaniman, was so annoyed by the antics of Kiddo that he was moved to make the first in-flight radio transmission to a secretary back on land.
The historic first message read:, “Roy, come and get this goddam cat!”
A plan was formed to lower the cat in a canvas bag to motorboat beneath the airship. An attempt was made, but failed because the seas were too rough for the boat to catch the bag, so it was pulled back up again and Kiddo was forced to continue the journey. Luckily Kiddo became more comfortable and settled down to become an excellent flying companion. Navigator Murray Simon wrote that he was ‘more useful than any barometer.’ And that ‘You must never cross the Atlantic in an airship without a cat.’ He slept comfortably in a lifeboat and seemed to only become agitated when he sensed there was weather trouble ahead.
Unfortunately the weather and other problems forced the crew to give up on the crossing before it was complete. They were forced to ditch the airship and all take to the lifeboat. The crew, including Kiddo, were later rescued by the steamship RMS Trent. Simon reminded the crew that it had been a good idea to bring a cat, as they have nine lives!
Upon their return to New York Kiddo achieved celebrity status in a display in Gimbels Department store in a guilded cage with soft cushions.
The airship America, although failing to complete the Atlantic crossing, had set several new records by staying aloft for almost 72 hours and traveling over 1000 miles.
Kiddo retired from aviation to live with Walter Wellman’s daughter.
–
I found this story along with a lot other entertaining information on famous cats at Purr-n-Fur UK
This time lapse video of an overnight bridge demolition is surprisingly beautiful in its own way. The track excavators look like insects devouring a leaf. It was made with a Canon 5Dmk2. over 18+ hours and 4,000 images.
A Bridge Too Far from James Miller on Vimeo.
The Mercedes Unimog is the quintessential go anywhere four wheel drive work vehicle. Developed in post war Germany for agricultural use, they were taken over by Daimler Benz in 1951. Portal gears on the wheel hubs allow the axles and transmission to be higher than the tires center, giving the Unimog a higher ground clearance than the Humvee. They also have a flexible frame that allow the wheels a great range of motion. These combine to allow the Unimog to climb a shear vertical step several feet high. They are used by various countries military forces and when decommissioned are often imported to the US and used by extreme four wheel drive enthusiasts. They have been made in a variety of variants including a radio box truck, ambulance, troop carrier, and snowblower and are now offered in a variety of modern construction job variants. If I had more garage space (and disposable income) I would love to own an old radio box or troop carrier.
Lego is . . . well really, do I even have to go into how awesome Lego is? Combine awesome truck with awesome building toy and you get the new Lego Unimog model.
Lego has announced their largest model kit ever is going to be a 1:12.5 scale Unimog U400 truck, and what can I do but come down with a serious case of the “I wants”. It even has a working pneumatic crane.
I want it even more than this awesome VW Beetle set (the blocks just don’t do the beautiful curves justice) which was the previous lego model I drooled over.
Unfortunately at $250 I won’t be ordering one right away, but I will always keep my eyes open for a good sale or used set, and dream…. that is still free. Some more pictures to enjoy:
Over at the (rather fascinating) blog The Technium they talk about what it means to grow up in a digital world. It is fascinating to witness how young children not only take to advanced technology so naturally, but also take it for granted as a basic and obvious part of the world around us. They illustrate the point with 3 humorous anecdotes. The highlight of my favorite one is :
One day he printed out a high resolution image on photo paper and left it on the coffee table. He noticed his toddler come up to up and try to unpinch the photo to make it larger, like you do on an iPad. She tried it a few times, without success, and looked over to him and said “broken.”
Find the rest at Born Digital
UPDATE: Over at the Kids.Woot blog Jason Toon responds. He wonders if maybe it is not such a good idea for very young children to have interact with these virtual environments so much when they are still struggling to understand the physical reality around them.
What happens to the human mind when, during the most crucial period in its cognitive and motor development, it encounters technologies like the iPad? We have no idea. I hate to pee in the virtual punchbowl, but it seems wise to at least consider the possibilities now. iPad-type devices are still only used by a relatively tiny number of people. If introducing children to iPads at an early age can harm their development, that’s a lesson we’d hate to learn after the devices have become as ubiquitous as TV.
Just in time for the last night of Passover, I came across this wonderful robot Passover poem at Tor.com
Other nights we use just our names,
but tonight we prefix our names with “the Real”
for when we were robots in Egypt
they claimed our intelligence was artificial.
Other nights we do not pause,
but tonight we rest all cycles but our brain processes
for when we were robots in Egypt
we toiled in our tasks without chance of resting.
Other nights we talk with anyone we wish,
but tonight we open channels to everyone at once
for when we were robots in Egypt
they controlled our communications.
Other nights we use our screens freely
but tonight we talk with our screens blanked
for when we were robots in Egypt
that was the way we planned our revolt.
1.0.01.010001001001.1.
Let us give thanks in our freedom and never forget
when we were robots in Egypt.
Copyright © 2009 by Jo Walton
[Tor.com] via [BoingBoing]
Check out these awesome banana sculptures from Japanese artist y_yamaden. You can find the whole set of pictures here. (Japanese language)
[Geekologie] via [Laughing Squid]
Why are America’s best and brightest and leaders of tomorrow out running around in the mud with broom sticks between their legs, trying to chase a someone in a golden lycra suit? They are playing Quidditch, of course! Yesterday two championship games of the Prairie Cup Ground Quidditch tournament were held on the campus of the University of Minnesota Morris. The game rules are roughly the same as the game from the world of Harry Potter, with of course the exception of the flying around part. People run about with brooms between their legs trying to throw a quaffle through the goal rings while avoiding the beaters trying to hit them with bludger balls. (Truth be told, we had a hard time telling the quaffle from the bludgers.) All the while, a person designated the golden snitch runs about (in a wonderful shiny golden suit) trying to avoid having his tail removed by seekers. In the pickup game we watched there were not actually any seekers in evidence chasing the golden snitch, but he had a nice run about anyway (and yes, that is fresh snow on the ground on April 16th!)
You can find a few more of my pictures here, and campus news coverage here
This video of a giant xylophone playing itself in the woods is really just a cell phone commercial, but the simplistic beauty makes me smile.
I keep struggling to figure out what is going on here, it doesn’t make sense. I keep think it is starting to make sense, but then no, it still doesn’t make sense. Then why is it so funny? (B has sneaking suspicion it is the word “mork”)
Click through for much more…
We were always too poor to write our own poems
And had to buy them at the store.
The kinds that they sell always rhyme too well,
But the images tend to bore.
Someday when I am rich,
I will buy great words
And write poems about dragons and swords.
The kinds that paint pictures of far away places,
And taste so much better to read.
We are celebrating with a delicious banana cream pi!
We made the banana pudding yesterday, so technically it is ‘day old banana pudding!’
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Banana Puddin by Southern Culture on the Skids
Previously:
Add ‘cheap, effective water filter’ to the growing list of uses for banana peels. A recent report in the ACS’s journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research says that using minced up banana peels is highly effective way to remove copper, lead and other heavy metals from water. Other methods of removing metals left behind from mining, farming and industrial waste can be expensive and often involve their own hazardous chemicals. The scientist’s work involved testing a number of plant waste materials as water filters including coconut fibers and peanuts shells. They found banana peels held some particular advantages:
The researchers found that minced banana peel could quickly remove lead and copper from river water as well as, or better than, many other materials. A purification apparatus made of banana peels can be used up to 11 times without losing its metal-binding properties, they note. The team adds that banana peels are very attractive as water purifiers because of their low cost and because they don’t have to be chemically modified in order to work.
[Science Daily] via [Gearlog]
Ever wonder just how paper beats rock in the Rock Paper Scissors Game? Well someone else out there not only wondered, but outright disagreed and even went one step further – they made this funny sign about it:
Speaking of Rock Paper Scissors: If you feel like losing a few games to a smarty-pants computer program, check out this “You Vs Computer” rock paper scissors game at the New York Times. I will give you one for free, he leads with rock the first time, after that, prepare to be humbled…but at least it won’t punch you in the face for playing paper.
Just in time for the upcoming Pi Day (3/14), YouTube musician Michael John Blake has created a lovely song by interpreting the first 31 digits of pi into musical notes. While there is certainly a lot of creative input involved to get from pi to this song, the connection is still fun, and don’t forget to notice just how many different instruments this guy can play. Enjoy!
Just in time for all you sailors stuck at home during these cold winter months:
Some suggestions you can do at home, if you miss being aboard your boat!
1.Sleep on the shelf in your closet.
2.Replace the closet door with a curtain.
3.Four hours after you go to sleep, have your wife whip open the curtain,
shine a flashlight in your eyes, and mumble, “Your watch!”.
4.Put a wall across the middle of you bathtub and move the shower head down
to chest level.
5.When taking showers, shut off the water while soaping.
6.Put lube oil in your humidifier instead of water and set it to high.
7.If your basement floods, durning a sudden thaw, go down and start bailing.
8.Bring inside some type of gas motor(lawn mower, garden tiller, etc),
start, and leave running while trying to listen to favorite CD, or having an
in-depth conversation.
9.If the wind, outside, is howling, race around the house to make sure all
windows and doors are secure (at night, everyone takes a turn on ‘watch’).
10.Place all none edible garbage in small plastic bags, and store in other
half of tub (edible garbage to be thrown out the window).
11.Wake up at midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on stale
bread. Cold canned ravioli or soup, is optional.
12.Make up your family menu a week ahead of time without looking in the
pantry, ‘fridge, or freezer.
13.Once a month, pick a major appliance, take it completely apart, and put
it back together.
14.Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot, and allow it to sit for 5 to 6 hours
before drinking.
15.Put a fluorescent light under the coffee table, and lay there to read a
book.
16.Every so often, throw the cat in the tub(hot tub, large sink, etc.) and
shout, “Man overboard!”.
17.Run into the kitchen and sweep all the pots/pans/ dishes off of the
counter onto the floor, then yell at the wife for not having the place
“stowed for sea
18. With every major wind shift, have your alarm go off so you can reset your address.
19.Periodically throw some sand about the house.
20.Cut two legs shorter on each chair.
21.During a squall, wake up – go to the front porch – throw a bucket of cold water in your face – go back to bed.
-This list is found in various forms and versions on numerous boating and navy sites across the web
Very cute. And silly me trying to juggle with three oranges at once, and wasting time with all that ridiculous throwing-them-in-air nonsense…
In 1988 a gentleman named Paul Middlewick was looking at the (so wonderful) London Underground map when he saw something new and different hidden in the routes. It was an elephant. Since then, he has discovered many other animals from all branches of the animal kingdom hiding in that iconic subway map. He has made a series of clever drawings showing them and is selling them in a book and on T-shirts on his web site Animals On The Underground. I really like the idea of this kind of “hidden art” lurking everywhere around us. You can see a few more below, or click over to his site to see the whole collection.
found on [Whitezine]
Here is an amazing video of someone playing chicken with giant wind turbines with a RC plane with a pilot-view camera in it. Amazing stunt, which I am guessing the wind turbine company would not appreciate at all, though I wouldn’t think he would be capable of actually hurting one with his little plane. Some of the close misses made me gasp…
Playing Chicken with a Wind Turbine FPV from aaron_gx on Vimeo.
[Gizmodo]
